No. 1764

Tendrons or Gristle of Lamb with Robert Sauce—Broiled

Tendrons d'Agneau Grilles a la Sauce Robert

Raise the cartilaginous parts from the breast which are called the tendrons or gristle, remove the breast bones keeping on only the tendrons, season with salt, pare into half hearts and lay them in a double broiler after brushing over with oil, and then broil them on a slow fire; when done dress on a Robert sauce (No. 533), insert a small bone into each piece to represent a handle and trim it with a paper frill (No. 10).

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a kitchen brigade that has already broken down the lamb and has Robert sauce standing ready. Two things need translating: what a tendron actually is, and how long cartilage really takes to become edible.

What a tendron isThe tendrons are the strips of soft cartilage that run along the lower edge of the breast, below the rib bones — the lamb equivalent of the rib tips on a rack of pork spareribs. You will need to ask a butcher for breast of lamb whole and cut them out yourself; the pieces are usually discarded in modern trimming.
The hinge: cook them through firstCartilage does not soften much over a broiler, however slow the fire. Classic French treatment of tendrons, particularly of veal, is to braise or simmer them until a knife passes through the gristle without resistance — commonly an hour and a half to two hours — press them flat under a weight until cold, and only then trim, oil and grill for colour. Ranhofer gives no such step; whether he assumed it of his cooks or expected the breast cartilage of young lamb to broil tender as it is cannot be settled from the text, but the braise-first method is the safer route to an edible result.
"Pare into half hearts"Cut each strip into rounded wedge shapes, flat on one side and curved on the other, so a row of them on the plate reads as a repeating pattern. Purely visual, and easiest if the meat has been cooked and pressed cold and firm first.
Double broilerA hinged wire grill that clamps the food between two grids so it can be turned as a unit. A fish basket or a folding grill grate does the same job; on an indoor broiler, use a rack and turn the pieces once.
Slow fireCharcoal well past its flaming stage, or the coolest workable setting on a gas grill. Aim for a lacquered surface without scorching the oil, and give the pieces time rather than heat.
Robert sauceThe classic sauce Robert of this period is onions sweated in butter, white wine reduced, brown sauce or demi-glace added, finished off the heat with mustard; Ranhofer's No. 533 should be checked against that entry. Do not let it boil after the mustard goes in or it turns bitter. A good jarred demi-glace makes this a fifteen-minute sauce.
The bone and the frillThe inserted bone and the paper cuff are nineteenth-century plate theatre, meant to make an offcut look like a cutlet. Skip both without loss; if you want the effect, use cleaned rib bones from the same breast.
YieldRanhofer gives no yield. As a rough guide, a whole lamb breast will give something like eight to twelve trimmed tendrons, depending on how small they are cut — a first course for four, or two servings as a main with the sauce and something starchy.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is a record of what a first-class American restaurant could do with a whole carcass rather than a case of trimmed cuts. Tendrons belong squarely to that economy: French kitchens are often said to have treated the gristly breast of veal and lamb as a dish in its own right, braised soft and then crumbed or grilled, and the surrounding entries here lambs' tails, lambs' tongues show the same instinct at work. Sauce Robert is far older than the book, appearing in French cookery by the sixteenth century and mentioned by Rabelais; mustard is among its characteristic notes. The paper frill is the tell of the period, a small piece of dining-room stagecraft designed to persuade a Fifth Avenue guest that he was eating a cutlet.